Hopes for the creation of a true welfare state in Thailand are fading fast as campaigning hits top gear ahead of the 8 February election.
Pledges to improve state benefits for millions of vulnerable Thais are almost absent from party manifestos, replaced by watered-down populist policies.
“Political parties have failed to demonstrate a sincere political will to improve people's lives,” said Nitirat Sapsomboon, a coordinator at We Fair, a network advocating for social justice and state (…)

Mariya Ivancheva (Université de Strathclyde) est sociologue et anthropologue de l'enseignement supérieur et du travail. Ses recherches portent sur la précarisation, la numérisation et l'externalisation du travail universitaire, ainsi que sur le rôle des communautés universitaires dans les processus de transformation politique et sociale à grande échelle. Elle est l'auteure de la monographie The Alternative University, lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela (Stanford University Press, 2023), ainsi (…)

Tens of Thousands of Arab Citizens Protest Rising Crime in Their CommunitiesProtesters took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Arab communities in over five years. Haaretz asked demonstrators about law enforcement, crime and politics. 'For the state, Arabs divided are Arabs in a weaker position,' one said. 'But we are here today to shout: We cannot tolerate this anymore.' Protests may only be the first step
A protester at a demonstration amid violent crime in Israeli Arab (…)

Whilst Buddhist monks on one side of the world are walking thousands of kilometres for peace and compassion, the image of Buddhism in Myanmar has again been severely tarnished, with a number of influential monks being accused at the top UN court of encouraging acts of killing.
The goal of the monks in the US who are taking part in the Walk for Peace is to promote the safety of all living beings. Since last year, they have endured the physical hardships of a transcontinental journey for (…)

The day after a remarkable one-day general strike in Minneapolis held to protest federal agents' murder of Renée Nicole Good, on January 26 federal agents murdered a second person, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Federal spokespeople immediately declared that Pretti was a domestic terrorist who had intended to “massacre” federal agents who, they said, shot him in self-defense but videos of the event contradicted the government's claim. (…)